Fellow Cameroonians
Today is the most significant day
in the struggle for democracy in Cameroon. You are here in your numbers because
you do not only have the faith but more so because you are determined to ensure
it works in Cameroon. Thank you for that faith and determination. Make no mistakes and do not allow yourself to
be misled or misguided by anyone no matter his station in life. Democracy has
never been handed out to a people on a platter of gold! For long you have heard
several meanings attributed to democracy. Some of these have tended to justify
tyrannies, whether it is tyranny of the majority or tyranny of the minority.
Whether we go back to Aristotle’s Athens or we remain in the present with
Abraham Lincoln’s America, we find ourselves with a viable definition. That
democracy is about people and the laws that they enact to govern themselves.
And that you should know that the struggle for democracy is no easier today
than it was in Greece 2500years ago.
In the context, we share the
views of Archbishop Abel Muzorewa when he wonders aloud “why is it that we
Africans can go to Britain (and here I add Europe) and the United States of
America and be free to criticize their government and heads of state without
fear of disappearing the following night or being deported. Why are we afraid of doing it in Africa? It is a heinous crime in Black Africa to
open your mouth and talk the doings of the government or head of State. You
would get thrown into prison and accused of treason or simply disappear. In such states, political leaders do not
trust their own people. They are tyrannical in a sense that they would not
allow criticisms.
And yet these same people whom
they oppress elect them. We say that democracy is about people because we
believe that without the observance of the fundamental freedoms, namely the
freedom of conscience and religion, freedom of thoughts, belief, opinion and
expression including the freedom of the press and other media of communication,
freedom of peaceful assembly and freedom of association, the people cannot be
expected to enjoy their basic rights which are life, liberty and the pursuit of
happiness as human beings.
The fact that we have had to put
up a hard struggle to hold this rally is abundant evidence that we had a long
way to go in the democratic process. Today, we call on you to yell for
democracy. For as someone has rightly said, “…unless people yell a lot, they
get ignored.” You cannot afford to be
ignored. Your children would not get ignored tomorrow.
Whether those who govern us
accept it or not, we believe, as others before us have believed and asserted
that the essence of democracy is about local people controlling their day to
day affairs.
Let us make this clear to all
those who are hearing us today that in the view of the social democratic front,
the struggle will continue not only here but anywhere in the world in as long
as there is someone who is governing and someone who is governed. This struggle can only stop when all people
participate in their own government.
But what we see today in African
leaders has cultivated the tendency to use the vocabulary of democracy to
conceal modern forms of dictatorship. It is against this dictatorship and
oppression that we join battle with anyone and we assure you today that we
shall remain victorious.
The SDF has included democracy in
its motto because of it fervent belief and conviction that the absence of the
democratic process in any society means the denial of justice and the
retardation of development. Because, where people are not free to go about
their normal daily chores without undue molestation, they can’t exhibit their
skills and talents.
As we have just pointed out, we
have to eschew any form of dictatorship because in contrast to true democracy
whereby people decide what is good for them. Dictatorship produced the
following results in the world of Argentina’s great blind writer, Jorge Luis
Borges: oppression, servility, cruelty and more abominable is the fact that
they breed stupidity.
We have set as one of our goals,
to rid the Cameroonian society of a system that deprives it of being free where
men are punished for daring to think freely, associate, and assembly peacefully
and freely.
Let us assure anyone present that
our own view of democracy is one where the people will retain power to speak,
to decide and act in the overall interest of their own society. We are
searching ways and means to secure the future for the generation that will
follow us and therefore, to be democratic is to disagree with what democracy
is.
Finally we call upon you to stand
up and be counted amongst those who share our democratic ideas. You have nothing to lose but the straight
jacket in which you , as freeborn citizens have been cast.
Long live SDF!
Long live Cameroon!
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